Before the End
by katefluff3824
Summary: Sue and Sean are now a fully fledged couple and come to realise that it comes with more difficulty than they once thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! So I wanted to write something on Sue and Sean during their relationship as we unfortunately didn't get to see too much of it! This is my first ever attempt at something like this so all feedback is appreciated :)**

* * *

Sue sat nervously waiting in the restaurant, constantly repeating the phrase 'don't worry, he'll show up' in her head over and over. Over and over. Over and over again. Trying to act casual, she looked over at her watch, in the hope that none of the waiters or other members of the public noticed the fact that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

This didn't happen.

Eventually, an elderly lady came over to her and said, "Are you quite alright dear? You've been sitting here waiting for the past 45 minutes. Do you need money for drinks? I'd be more than happy to…"

Sue cut her off instantly. "Oh my gosh that is SO kind of you, really it is. In actual fact though I'm sort of waiting for someone…" she trailed off. Was she really waiting for someone? Was she even sure if said someone was going to turn up? Sure, Sean was still a Donahue through and through and no one would torment him more than himself if he were to miss this date. It wasn't an anniversary, it wasn't a birthday and it wasn't even a send off. All in all, it was just going to be an ordinary Thursday evening where the two of them could spend time together. But these evenings had recently become more and more sporadic; Sean being in medical school and Sue needing to focus all of her energy on finding a job and graduating. There was no doubt that when the 2 were together, it was like they'd never been apart but when being apart was proving to be the norm, any chance to avoid the inevitable clash of schedules was a chance to be taken.

Sue was brought back to reality by the old lady's patient smile, which she returned feverishly. "Thank you again though," she said, "It was super kind of you and I'm touched. But honestly, I think I'll be alright." and with that, she picked up her jacket and left.

* * *

Sean burst through the restaurant doors, his face becoming more and more perplexed as he found no sign of his girlfriend as he scanned through the faces on the door.

"Excuse me!", he called the waiter, "I was meant to meet my girlfriend here. She booked the table under the name of Heck?"

"Ok Sir, just hold on one second as I look for your booking."

"Will do, thank you very much." He felt a buzz in his pocket and instinctively picked it up. It was from Sue.

 **Hi! Ok look, I know you've been super busy this week with school aaaand obviously we both have finals and big BIG tests coming up within a month so I decided to change the plan for tonight. I don't know if you forgot about tonight or if you were working late but I thought it would be fun if I just grabbed a pizza and brought it over to your apartment tonight. If you're not there then come over! If you're at the restaurant, again come over (also the lady on table 15 is SO NICE), and if you're asleep then I guess that's more my problem than yours. Love you SO much and it'll be nice to hang out and RELAX with you again! Xxxxxx**

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sean quickly thanked and dismissed the waiter within a couple of seconds and ran for his life until he got to his apartment.

Sue sat on the floor outside the apartment, debating whether or not to eat the pizza. It had been 45 minutes since she texted Sean, 1 hour 45 minutes since she had gotten to the restaurant, surely the guy had to be asleep.

 _If I have the pizza now then it looks like I didn't want to wait for him but if I don't have it now I'll be an idiot for letting it go cold. He's probably asleep anyway and I don't want to buy a warm pizza and eat it cold but if he isn't asleep then I'll feel terrible and I'll have ruined this amazing idea that I had… But maybe I only think it's an amazing romantic gesture because I love pizza but what about if Sean doesn't think it. No wait, what if he DOES think it and I've gone and ruined this amazing gesture because I think he's asleep. But if he IS asleep then he won't appreciate this amazing romantic gesture ANYWAY and I might as well have just eaten the pizza…_

"I hope you've saved some for me."

Sue instantly perked up and practically jumped for joy at hearing his voice. "Yes of course! I wouldn't even THINK of eating it before you and so on…"

"And so forth and what have you. Yeah you really need to think of a new way to lie Suzy-Q." Sean quickly unlocked the door and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'm really sorry about the mess. And tonight as a whole. I'm such an idiot for leaving you in that restaurant and for not thinking about booking at a later time, it was so selfish and irresponsible of me. I promise I'll make it up to you. Whenever I can, as soon as I can."

Sue had begun to shake her head before he'd even finished speaking. "Hey sssssshhh. It all worked out. We're both here, we're both going to have a good time, what time do you need to be up tomorrow?"

"6 am."

"We'll have a fun, short-ish time then. I can be out of here by 9, what time is it now?"

"8."

"Seeeeee? Even normal people can do at least 3 things in an hour. I bet with my optimism, your work ethic and the good karma that comes with being a Donahue we'll be one unstoppable couple."

Finally Sean was able to relax. He leant down and gently kissed her. "I love you so much Suzy-Q. I hope you know that, you deserve better than someone who completely leaves you for the first three months of a relationship and barely has time to see you after."

Sue scoffed. "Oh yeah, because guys who drive out halfway to Denver just to tell me they love me because they saw a SNOWGLOBE, treat me with respect, actively encourage my quirks and CA-RAZY ambitions instead of trying to show me the real world just don't make the cut. Let's face it Sean. I'm the one who's punching."

It was his turn to scoff. "Stop talking like that Ms Q or I'll kiss you again to prove you wrong."

Sue playfully punched the air, forcing Sean to kiss her again. Both came away from that kiss knowing that they had something truly special.

Their love was strong, no one could doubt that. But their relationship was something different; communication had never been their strength and even if their love survived, they both knew that a relationship between 2 incredibly busy people who wanted very different careers couldn't survive purely on their mutual adoration or their mutual optimism alone.


	2. Chapter 2

"Sue, are you ready yet?" Lexie called, impatiently keeping an eye on the time. "I told my friend that we'd be there in half an hour and I really don't want to keep her waiting. It's so kind of her to invite us to this event and I don't want her to regret doing it."

Fortunately enough, Sue quickly came out of her room with her make-up and hair done, tripping over whilst trying to get her shoes on. "Tah-dah! Do you mind zipping me up?"

Lexie laughed quietly and reached for Sue's back, "I have to say you look amazing! I can totally forgive running over a couple of minutes- heads will be turning, I swear. Sean will have to watch out tonight" Instantly she regretted her words and began to open her mouth.

Laughing it off, Sue instantly started reassuring her friend, "Luckily, I have you to deter all of the hopefuls. All 0 of them that is." But soon reality set in. She didn't want any attention from any flirts in search of a one-night stand tonight, however she did want to enjoy an evening out with her boyfriend. Still, his career was really important and surely he'd make up for it some other time, this was Sean Donahue after all.

"I know he really wishes he could be here tonight." Lexie chided in. "You know you could always send him pictures from the evening, having a good time, I'm sure he'd feel better about it. Besides, I'm your date for this evening. It'll be like our first year. Oh my god do you remember the parties I used to take you to during our quest to get you over the shirtless priest?"

"If only I could forget! I believe I scarred some of those guys for life, particularly the one who had to heimlich me."

"Well we don't have to worry about that anymore. We both got the men we wanted and we both wouldn't have it any other way." Lexie smiled at Sue. "You ready to go? Come on, let's go and have fun! I feel like I haven't gone a single evening without crying since Axl left for Denver again. I need this, you need this. All girls everywhere need a night like this!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get us a some fun!" and with that, the 2 girls left the apartment.

* * *

The venue wasn't packed but by no means was it a disappointment. Candles were lit on every table, a chandelier hung from the ceiling, the music from the orchestra filled the room.

"Oh my god Lexie, the drinks have umbrellas in them!" Sue squealed as she ran up to her friend, who happened to be in mid-conversation with someone else. "I thought that was just a thing they did in the Bahamas or Hawaii or something but no! It turns out they have them in Indiana too. Did you know they did that here?"

"Actually, I did." Lexie giggled and quickly gestured to her companion, "Sue, this is Jess, she goes to St Matthews. Jess, this is my roommate, Sue."

Jess' eyes started to squint, as though she was trying to remember Sue from a previous meeting or so. Soon after, they popped open. "Wait- are you Sue Heck. As in Sean Donahue's girlfriend?"

"Yep. That's me." Sue nodded affirmatively whilst Jess looked her up and down.

"Wow, you're not how I pictured you AT ALL." Jess quickly began to cover herself, "Not in a bad way- you look gorgeous, I just pictured someone entirely different."

Sue laughed, casually brushing off Jess' earlier remarks. "Well, this is me, through and through."

"You know your boyfriend talks about you ALL the time. He never shuts up about how much he misses you and how much he wishes he could see you but he never has the time because he's really busy with medical school."

"Aww he does? Well actually I'm really quite busy too as it's my senior year and I have all these societies and…"

Jess cut Sue off. "You see, Med School is just so difficult. It's like we don't have time for anyone or anything other than our work. I really do applaud you two, I don't know how you make it work. You must really be besotted with him to be so patient with him- he always says he doesn't know how you do it. What are you majoring in then?"

"Hotel Management. Actually I wasn't originally going to do Hotel management because I really like drama and German and so I thought I was going to double major with those. But then I thought, well I really do love animals so…" Sue quickly stopped when she saw Jess' face.

"Is hotel management actually a major? I had no idea."

"You see, I didn't either at first but it turns out East Indy is actually well known for it." Sue chirped.

"Well. It certainly sounds very… vocational. Absolutely nothing like Med school or maths." Jess laughed and Lexie shifted, becoming increasingly mortified that she had put Sue in this position.

"Oh god it is SO different. I admire all of you who put yourselves up for something like Med School. Anyway, Lexie, didn't you say we should go and thank your friend Georgia for the invitation this evening? I'd really like to meet her. It was SO nice meeting you Jess."

"And to both of you. Tell Sean I say hi!"

"You tell him I say hi! He'll see you before he sees me!" Sue tried to laugh at her words but deep down her heart was breaking at the thought of Sean being surrounded by people like Jess every day instead of her. Would they influence him? Surely not. Still, she whispered to Lexie, "After we say hi to Georgia, I think I'll take off."

* * *

 **2am- 5 hours after Sue decided to take off.**

Sue stumbled through her apartment door followed by an equally tipsy Lexie.

"Wooooo-hooooo. BEST NIGHT EVER!" She squealed. "I can't believe that I nearly left. They sung the Macarena Lex. The MACARENA."

"I can't believe you nearly guilted me into leaving with you. This is proof that we need to go out more often and next time get more drunk than we are now. This is just tipsy, I want to wake up before a 9am lecture absolutely hungover. Until then, I haven't lived the full college experience." Lexie was disturbed by the sound of footsteps coming from the direction of their bedrooms.

Both girls looked at each other with alarmed expressions. Sue tiptoed towards the knife draw and pulled out the biggest one she could find. She shouted cautiously, "Oi you, be warned, I've got a weapon and I can do some serious damage- I took a class." Lexie rolled her eyes and pointed at the knife. A bread knife.

"Consider me warned." Sean came out into view, his eyes were clearly exhausted from sleep but he was smiling all the same.

"Sean!" Sue reached out for a hug.

"Please put the knife down Suzy-Q." he laughed gently and leaned in to give her the hug that was needed.

Lexie was also chuckling as she said, "Right, I need to get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Lexie." The happy pair chorused in unison .

After half an hour, they had both settled in Sue's room, lying down with Sue's head on Sean's chest. "Why are you here Sean?" She quizzed.

"Well, I was planning on surprising you as you got back from this evening, I guess I hadn't expected it to be such a late one."

Sue sighed, "I regret not leaving at 9 like I was going to. I had all my things packed up and everything but Lexie talked me into staying an extra couple of hours. Then the songs got SO good."

"Why 9, Sue?"

There was a pause. Sue contemplated everything that Jess had told her, she contemplated telling Sean everything but did she really want to snitch on Jess? Sure, the girl had been a bit judgemental but did that mean that Sue had the right to interfere in her friendship with Sean? This wasn't eighth-grade, this was college and she could still get the answers she needed to hear without unnecessarily dropping the names of a few irrelevant people into the conversation.

"No reason. I was just tired. Do you mind telling me something though Sean?"

"Anything." He kissed her forehead.

"Does what I do for a major bother you?"

Sean's thought process stopped in its tracks. "What?" He seemed puzzled.

Feeling the need to explain herself, Sue expanded on her question. "Well we both know that you're incredibly good looking and I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that you were way out of my league in that respect but I guess it's only just hit me recently that you're a lot smarter than me as well. I mean I'm not **not** smart but I'm not doctor material. I've spent all my life getting rejected from places because I'm just average you know and with this hotel management programme I feel like I'm above average, even if it is… vocational. Still, doctors tend to go with nurses or housewives or brainiacs and I'm not any of those things. I'm too dumb to be a nurse, there's no way I'm not going to have my own career and I don't sit down in my free time and read science journals or do maths puzzles. I'm a nerd and I try hard, but I'm not Notre Dame material, I'm not a model and I'm certainly not different to any other girl you've seen before. I'm an average girl who's doing a programme that most people have never heard of. Why are you interested in me?"

Sean's heart felt as though it was falling into a pit. "Sue, has anyone said anything to you."

"No, of course not." She felt terrible for lying, but was sure she was doing it for the right reasons.

Carefully, Sean cupped Sue's face and twisted it so they were almost facing each other in the dark room. "Sue. I am not out of your league do you hear me? You are shrewd in your own way and that's why I love you. Ok, so you don't get involved in debates on legislation and you don't read science journals but you know what? The moment I leave class, neither do I. Well I do for science journals but that's by no means through personal choice. You are beautiful, how can you not see that? 5 guys asked you to your prom in Junior year of high school…"

"If you're going down the attractive route, say 4 because Brad doesn't count."

Chuckling, Sean continued, "Look at yourself tonight, the Chancellor's Ball dress, the dance in Kentucky, all of them make my heart melt. And you say you're not a typical 'Doctor's girlfriend', Sue, you're not MINE, you're you and I love that. I love that you have never let your love life factor into your outlook on life. I don't want you to be a stay at home sort of girl, we'd both get bored, if you were a nurse we'd have too much in common and as for a brainiac? Sue you strive to improve the world each day in different ways, you have ambition and you make people feel better, you make the world a better place whenever you touch it and it breaks my heart that you can't see that. I love you so much. We are alike in so many ways. We both have an innate desire to please and care for people. We both like dances. But we're not twins. Like I've said before, we're soulmates."

They both sat in silence for a while before Sue spoke. "I love you.

"I love you too," he replied simply and leant in to kiss her. They both spent that night embracing the love they had for one another, choosing to ignore whatever the next day would hold.


End file.
